Railway-rail joint



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J. L; POPE.

v RAILWAY RAIL JOINT. No. 286,843. I Patented Oct. 16, 1883.

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J."L. POPE. RAILWAY RAIL JOINT. No. 286,843. Patented Oct. 16, 1883.

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JOHN L. POPE, or CLEVELAND, OHIO.

RAILWAY-RAIL JOINT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 286,843, dated October16, 1883.

Application filed October 10, 1882. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN L. POPE, of Cleveland, in the county ofCuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Railway-Rail Joints, of which the following is aspecification.

The purpose of this invention is for securing fish-plates torailway-rails.

I am aware that various contrivances have been patented for fasteningnuts on fishplate bolts; but notwithstanding the nuts may be firmlysecured to such bolts the fish-plates soon wear sufiiciently to loosenthe joint and render it worthless.

This invention relates to improvements in railway-j oints; and itconsists in the employment of alongitudinal spring having the endssustained by a plate with an abutment at each end, in combination with aseparate fishplate, all of which will 'be hereinafter more particularlydescribed, and pointed out inthe claim.

In order to accomplish the above-specified purpose, I use a spring madeof steel plate, more or less curved in form, confined in such a mannerthat it cannot be elongated by pressure, said plate of which the springis formed being sufficiently thin or elastic to be bent or sprung by thenut when thus rigidly confined at the ends by the flanges of the plateon which a it abuts; hence there is a constant resilience of the spring,and by this effort at reaction a continued pressure is exerted upon thenut, thereby holding the several members forming the railjoint inposition. The preferable method of confining said springs, so that onesized spring may be used on different-sized rails, is between flangesformed on each end of a metallic plate; but I do not confine myself tosaid plates for holding said springs, as it is obvious that abutmentsmay be formed in various ways to accomplish said purpose, as hereinafterdescribed, and shown in the drawings, making a part of thisspecification, in which- Figure 1 represents an end view of theabove-said spring-washer and flanged plate. Fig. 2 is a plan View of theflanged plate. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the spring. Figs. 4, a, 6, 7,and 8 are modifications.

Like letters of reference refer to like parts in the several views. I

In Fig. 1, A is a curved spring, above alluded to, and B the flangedplate, between the flanges G of which the ends of the spring are placed,and thereby prevented from spreading when subjected to the power of thenut. The width of the plate is such as to permit it to fit in betweenthe head and foot of the rail when placed against the fish-plate D,which is. applied to the rail or joints of the rails in the ordinaryway. In the center of the spring is a hole, E, Fig. 3, for the admissionof the fish-plate bolt, and in the flangeplate is a slotted opening, F,that the flangeplate and spring may be adjusted laterally to thebolt-hole in the fish-plate and web of the rail.

Four bolts are usually employed for securing the fish-plates to therails, two on each side of the joint; hence a spring and flangeplate areused for each of the bolts.

It will be obvious that 011 screwing up the nut upon the bolt and hardagainst the spring,

the ends of said spring cannot spread apart by the pressure of the nut;nor can the spring turn upon the bolt, as it is held by the shoulders ofthe base-plate. More or less tension may be given to the spring by thenut, and the resilience of the spring will continue a strain upon thebolt and prevent it from becoming loose and the nut from workingtherefrom. p

I desire it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the exactshape of the spring as shown in Fignl, as the same may be modified tothe shapeof the spring-washer G, (seen in Fig. 4,) and to that shown inFig. 6, in which latter figure it will be observed that the spring H andthe baseplate I are in one piece, and that thefree end of the spring isheld by the shoulder J of the base-plate. In said figure K is thefish-plate.

InFig. 8, Q are fish-plates, and R aspring, and A a nut, into which thebolt d is screwed. Said nut is provided with flanges corresponding tothe flanges. O in Fig. 1, and for the same purpose.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

For securing fish-plates to railway-rails, the

combination, with the two rails and the fish plates, of the spring A andflanged plate B, substantially as and for the purpose de' scribed.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

Witnesses: JOHN L. POPE.

W. H. BURRIDGE, GUSTAV A. LAUBSOHER.

